Thanks everyone for replying! Here are the things I learned:

1. I should try not to extend the hand out and not fall on the palm or shoulders. Hitting the elbow would be least damaging for the hand I guess.
2. I should try to fall in a way that probably the knee hits first, and then roll over gently on the back.
3. Keep calm and also yell OH CRAP at the same time
4. Practice unclipping a few feet before stopping (which I am doing now) and then slowly close the distance.

Guess I'd wear my biking shoes even during my everyday commute on uni campus until I get used to clipless. Hoping safe falls or no falls at all.

I just joined this forum and I am pleasantly surprised by how active this place is. Thanks again. I hope you guys enjoyed/ are enjoying the eclipse today (if you're in the US).

And if you fall at a intersection where everyone is watching and laughing, to save face, quickly get up no matter how much it hurts, brush yourself off and straddle the bike and look as if you did it on purpose.....

I give up.

I gave up about post 2.

Since this thread is rolling no where fast, if one is to roll shouldn't the goal be to roll past the Florida armadillo road kill position and back to fully upright? This serves multiple goals, it keeps the rider upright AND keeps the bike from being unacceptablely non-upright


To the OP, it will become second nature shortly that stopping/slowing/putting on the brakes means to start declipping. With the low speed try not to lash, swing out wildly or excessively brace - your more likely to cause a significant injury.

If you can't remember to unclip I can't see how you will remember how you should be falling.

I know for sure that this 50+ rider does not possess the agility with the flexibility and muscular capability to pull off that maneuver.

When I said to rotate your knee and elbow out, I did not mean all the way. Just far enough so they hit first and absorb some of the fall before more solid stuff hits like shoulder and hip. I figure around four points of contact and injury is a fall well done. My last one, elbow got it worst, then knee then hip and hand were a toss. Still don't know what the deal with my hand was. Sort of a sprain. NO broken skin or bruising. But not serious. I feel it a little now but I am not concerned. Overall, just an A-, but I'll take that anytime.

Ben

From my learning experience, it's not that I didn't remember to unclip, rather sometimes / many times until you get the pedal cleat adjusted and broken in, sometimes it won't unclip exactly when you want, result a fallover.

Anyway rolling over may not be for everyone but, in my brief stint with cyclocross, my teach took me to a grass field and had me practice falling, rolling over. A better place might be a gym with heavy mats. It's a good thing to get used to.

Don't do what I did and chose not to unclip because I thought I wouldn't have to stop completely. In case of doubt, unclip. If you're coming to a blind corner/intersection that you might need to stop abruptly, unclip before reaching that corner/intersection. You can always pedal on the heel or arch but make sure you don't inadvertently clip back otherwise you're back to square one.

Don't know which cleats you have but multi-release cleats could be an option. It's easier to unclip from them.

No, you do NOT need to roll. "Roll with it is just an expression." Holy cow....

Save your breath.

I'm sure there are many excellent ways to fall upon stopping in clipless pedals, but I'd recommend falling sideways into a hedge in the middle of a large charity ride.

The hedge, while scratchy, prevents any serious injury such as might occur if the elbow joint struck the ground.

The large charity ride ensures that many other rides, as laughing subsides, assure you that it is normal to fall like that. Some might even have funnier stories to distract from the discomfort and embarrassment.

Mr. Penmanparker .... a trend I notice ... everyone who has contributed to this thread and has also had some marital arts training, however little or however long ago, has been taught Better ways to fall. You, obviously, have not.

Perhaps we are not explaining ourselves well. But the fact is, falling so as to spread the impact and so as to land on least breakable parts of the body is a science, in that it has been studied, experiments have been made, and results tabulated and analyzed---for literally over a thousand years.

Since human physiology has not changed in the last millennium, nor have gravity or physics ... there are better and worse ways to fall.

Considering that these techniques were developed in Combat, where life and death were potentially the outcomes ... people took all this pretty seriously. You might not ... but then, you would have been Darwinned by some guy who bounced back up when you threw him, and then laughed as you fell badly, broke a limb or knocked your head, and lay defenseless so the guy could kill you.

I am stupid enough to clipfall from time to time---and so far have been smart enough not to ever get hurt.

I would not try to break my fall with my knee--knees break. I would not use my elbow, for the same reason. I would not extend a hand--wrists break, or the arm could be jammed back and tear the rotator cuff.

When I fall I twist my downside shoulder forward--from the waist---and tuck my chin into my upside shoulder. This way, I land on a larger area (less concentrated force) and my head isn't bounced off the pavement (doubtful that would do much harm, but proper form, and all.)

Maybe you are too old to accept that you haven't learned everything there is to know ... sometimes folks reach that point. Pretty soon we have to take their bikes away and put them in a home where they write posts about how people should ride bicycles to enjoy themselves in the fashion the poster prefers.

Or maybe ... the folks responding to this thread who have been trained to fall well, simply haven't explained it well.

Maybe go on YouTube and look up "break falls," or "Aikido--how to land when thrown" or something. You will find that there is a Lot of information about what are really some very simple concepts about how to fall and minimize injury.

The hard part is Always execution. Doing it right by instinct takes a lot of training to develop that instinct. But blindly rejecting every idea that is new you you ... that is the beginning of the end for a thinking being.

Before long you will find yourself shopping for recumbents.

Campus... sounds like the worst place to slowly fall over. A bunch of young good looking people to watch you go down.

This thread is definitely in the running for 41-iest Thread of the Year.

Sounds like the worst place for clipless.

First time I fell on the day I started using clipless, I made the mistake of instinctively holding out my hands to cushion my fall. Fortunately nothing bad happened except for the road rash on the palm of my hands, scratches on the handlebar and the brake/hoods/shifter being knocked out of alignment.


Second time I started falling (completely my fault; I thought I might try to learn track-standing, without adequate distance to something to grab onto) my first instinct was "protect the handlebars!!!"

Thanks for clarifying. I also meant that my knee and elbow could be points of first contact as I try to maximize the area of the body that touches the ground and thus minimize the damage. And as has also been pointed out in this thread, I checked some videos on YouTube on how people try to fall in martial arts and skateboarding etc. I think being aware of these techniques is a step in the right direction, even if I might not pull it off perfectly when I actually fall.

Haha I realize that. But right now campus is mostly empty because it's summer quarter. I have a month to practice my falls

Falling over, clipped in at zero speed, has happened to me zero times. I use flats ;-)

Cute, but riddle me this. When I fall from a dead stop because of losing balance at a stop light or forgetting to clip out, why do I not bruise, break or skin anything? I land on my gloved hands and decelerate the fall with the spring action of my elbows. The worst that has ever happened was the big chain ring digging into my right calf once and creating a string of cuts that looked like tiger claws. All the "trained" fallers here have reported their many bruises and scrapes where they hit the ground. Why is that?

Going down at 20 mph is very, very different. We aren't talking about that now.

Too late, sir. You had already surrendered.

Drat! And I would have had you up against the ropes.

First time I fell at a red light, an elderly woman got out of her car and hobbled over to me to offer help. Lots of "are you ok Dear." She was so sweet. As if I wasn't embarrassed enough already.

But then I let the blood dry on my leg. Told my kids that cyclist aren't that whimpy after all. (the didn't buy it).